Posted by thepuppet33r 10/28/2024
In the past 15-ish years since I have been using wireless mices, I have had only 1 that used up the battery in less than 4 months (incidentally I'm using it now, $4 garbage) - everything else was tagging along without a hitch for about a year, without turning them off. And when the battery starts to die, they just start blinking like a week ahead... I think mouse is one thing where replaceable batteries make a lot of sense still.
They certainly wouldn't tolerate anything as bulky as a battery door on the upper surface. And designing a battery door for the bottom, which also wouldn't interfere with the smooth motion of the mouse... it's probably something Apple engineers could pull off, but it would take a lot of work.
Combined with the other advantages -- less waste, the fact that charge ports are ubiquitous, fewer moving parts -- it's no surprise that Apple, at least, would prefer a built-in battery.
As for everybody else, I dunno. It may literally just not have occurred to them that some people would prefer it.
Constantly moving around and tugging on the charging port seems like asking for a port replacement in a year. Is there a reason people who want to have their mouse plugged in while it's charging don't just use a wired mouse? (Not being sarcastic, genuinely curious.)
But that really hasn't happened to me much. In any event, a good reason to keep a wired mouse in hand too just in case.
There may be some way to make the current battery levels display more obvious than the default; I've not looked into it much.